France's upper house of parliament on Thursday urged the government to recognize Palestine as a state, following a similar and highly symbolic vote in the lower house.

The Senate resolution, calling for French recognition of Palestine and an "immediate restarting" of peace talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis, passed narrowly, with 153 votes in favor and 146 against.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam said on Wednesday that France will sign over the weekend the final agreement to equip the Lebanese army with the weapons and ammunition it has ordered, as he lamented the “insufficient” international support for Lebanon.

Salam spoke upon his arrival to Paris on a four-day official visit during which he will discuss with French officials political and security issues.

France's last remaining hostage, Serge Lazarevic, arrived home Wednesday after three years in the hands of Islamist militants as questions swirled around the terms of his release.

The government has refused to comment on reports that several Al-Qaida prisoners, including those involved in kidnapping Lazarevic in Mali in 2011, were released in exchange for his freedom.

France's only remaining hostage held abroad, Serge Lazarevic, who was kidnapped in Mali in 2011, has been freed and is in "relatively good health", French President Francois Hollande said Tuesday.

"Our hostage Serge Lazarevic, our last hostage is free," Hollande said. "There are no more French hostages in any country in the world."

A German court Tuesday threw out the case  against an 89-year-old former soldier over the Nazis' worst atrocity on French soil, the 1944 massacre in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane.

The regional court in the western city of Cologne, citing a lack of evidence, said it would not try the unnamed pensioner who was charged in January with the murder of 25 people committed by a group, and with aiding and abetting the murder of several hundred people.

Lebanon needs more international help to fight jihadist forces that have launched a series of attacks against the army and kidnapped troops and policemen, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said in an interview with Agence France-Presse.

Salam, speaking ahead of a visit to France this week, welcomed French arms deliveries due "in the coming weeks," but said the Lebanese army needed more.

The director of the department of the Middle East and North Africa at the French Foreign Ministry kicked off his meetings with Lebanese officials on Monday to resolve the presidential deadlock.

Jean-François Girault, who arrived in Beirut on Sunday, first met with Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil at Bustros Palace.

The Nigerian authorities on Sunday said they had detained a Russian cargo plane carrying military equipment in the north Nigerian city of Kano.

The country's defense chiefs announced on Twitter that the Antonov aircraft was held pending an investigation into its provenance and what it was carrying.

France's interior minister vowed Sunday to make the fight against anti-Semitism a "national cause" after a couple was attacked apparently because the man was Jewish.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam is scheduled to travel to the French capital Paris next week where he will meet with President Francois Hollande and a number of officials, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

It said that the premier will discuss with the French president the three-billion dollar grant to the army and implementing it on the ground “as soon as possible through providing weapons to the army.”